Icy Eyes, Bloody Shadow
by rachie.ree08794
Summary: Akabara Rin and Mitsuruki Aissa are two girls who meet by chance. Fate soon turns its wheel on Aissa however, as several tragedies confront her, whilst Rin suffers through the constant shunning of her prestigous traditional family. KibaOC and SasuOC
1. Prologue

Icy Eyes, Bloody Shadow (A Naruto Story)

_**Character Information**_

Name: Aissa Mitsuruki

Age: 12

D.O.B: April 1st

Appearance: Dark, coppery red, waist length hair, Dark, stormy blue eyes.

Personality: Generally, shy towards most people, but she's a strong fighter and puts friends and team mates first. She loves food, especially chicken karaage.

Attributes: Water and Lightning. Better at Ninjutsu and Taijutsu than Genjutsu even though she can detect most Genjutsu.

Biju: Yonbi – Four Tailed Dog

Team: Team 7

Kekkei Genkai: Icy eyes or Icy Eye – Combination of the Byakugan and Sharingan. She can see 360 degrees, however, unlike with the Byakugan, she has no blind spot, and can see up to 12 and a half kilometers radius. However to activate this dojutsu, the clan member must feel extreme amounts of a negative emotion.

Name: Rin Akabara

Age: 12

D.O.B: February 28th

Appearance: Honey colored(more blonde than brown), shoulder length hair, red-brown (more red than brown) eyes.

Team: Team 8

Kekkei Genkai: Blood Shadow – Surrounds opponent in blood like mist. She can assemble and disassemble her body at any time. After a certain amount of time however, she starts to feel extreme pain, as if she were blown up by a bomb.

_***Prologue***_

_They say that the night is peaceful, yet frightening at the same time. They say war eventually leads to peace. People, say a lot of things, like Autumn wind and female mind change often. So, how can something peaceful be frightening. Why the war? If all people want in the world is peace, why go to great lengths to achieve it, only to result in conflict._

_Some people say that the only reason we live is to die. If that is so, then why do others argue and say that we were put on this world for a reason? Others still believe in reincarnation, that we are reborn as someone else when we die._

_Twelve years ago, the Legendary Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure, sealed the Kyuubi, Lord of all kitsune, into a baby who's umbilical cord was just cut. However, it is said that he also sealed the Yonbi – the Four Tailed dog – into another baby, born on the eve of fools._

_Upon his deathbed, the Yondaime Hokage declared that these children were to be regarded as heroes of the village. Instead, the Kyuubi vessel grew up without the guidance of his parents. The Yonbi vessel grew up isolated from the world by her parents until the day she joined the Konohagakure ninja academy._

_There is, however, one more story to entwine in this tale. Upon arrival at the ninja academy at age eight, the vessel of the Yonbi immediately befriended a descendant of a clan that was renowned for their famous, yet hair raising Kekkei Genkai._

_Thus begins our tale; of Icy Eyes and Bloody Shadows….._


	2. Chapter 1

_***Chapter 1 – Truth***_

_~Aissa~_

I yawned as I walked out my front door after calling a goodbye to my parents and my baby brother, Hotaru. I walked down the street slowly, enjoying the morning air and the warm sunlight on my face. I had decided to tie my hair up today, having pulled the mass of coppery red hair into a ponytail and then folding it upwards and putting a clip through it to keep it up (think Riza Hawkeye's hairdo), leaving my long side fringe out. I hummed thoughtfully as I looked up at the small clouds that scudded across the sky in the early morning breeze.

Today is my twelfth birthday, April the 1st. Also known as April Fool's Day. Not that anyone in my Academy class really pulled any pranks towards each other anymore, they had all but grown out of it a few years ago. I was about to turn the corner towards the academy when something barrelled into me.

"Gyah!" I yelped as I landed hard on my arse. I winced, pained slightly as I looked up to see that Uzumaki Naruto had been the one to bump into me. I grinned slightly, figuring out instantly why he was running so fast.

"What'd you do this time, Naruto-san?" I was pretty good friends with Naruto, we got along well and understood each other's thoughts and feelings, since – aside from my family and friends – it seemed like the whole of Konoha pretty much shunned us both. I had no idea why though. I stood up, brushing any dirt off of my pants, as Naruto jumped up and ran off again. Soon after, I watched as two Chuunin ran past, in hot pursuit of Naruto. I chuckled, shaking my head amusedly and continuing on my way to the academy.

* * *

I sat with a sigh at the end of a row of desks, not paying any mind to whoever might be in the seats next to me. I yawned again and dropped my chin onto my crossed arms, staring with glazed eyes towards the front of the classroom. After what felt like an eternity, I blinked as a hand was waved in front of my face. I looked up and grinned at my best friend tiredly. Rin sat in the empty seat next to me and looked at me with a grin.

"What'chya doin' Aissa-chan?" I yawned, rubbing my eyes tiredly.

"Pretending that I'm asleep. I don't know why, but I'm so~ tired." I sighed, stretching my arms above my head. Rin giggled.

"What time did you go to sleep, Aissa-chan?" She asked, humour and slight suspicion in her voice.

"9:30." I mumbled, looking at her sceptically. She nodded her head.

"Okay, what time did you wake up?" She asked again. I looked at her like she was loony – which she was prone to being on occasion.

"7:00." I replied again. I had no idea what-so-ever where Rin was going with this. When a slightly lecherous grin crossed her face, I immediately became worried for the wellbeing of my virgin ears.

"Don't even go there girl." I warned, giving her a look that clearly said 'don't even _think_ about it'. Rin shrugged, and her grin lessened a little bit.

"Okay, okay. I won't say anything." She caved, putting her hands up in defence. After a few moments of just sitting and chatting as the classroom filled up, I vaguely noticed that Naruto still had yet to make his appearance. I shrugged it off, he was probably out training again.

Suddenly, Iruka-sensei stormed in, a tied up Naruto in his hands. I sweatdropped. Scratch that thought.

"I'm at the end of my rope, Naruto." Iruka-sensei ranted, after he put Naruto on the floor at the front of the classroom. I sighed. Here we go again. The whole class is in for it now. I looked around the room and noticed that everyone else had stopped their conversations short to listen to what was going on up the front.

"You failed the graduation test the last time, and the time before that. Tomorrow you've got another chance, and you're messing up again!" Naruto 'humph'ed and turned his head away. I winced when I noticed the angry look on Iruka-sensei's face.

"Fine. Because you missed it Naruto, everyone will review the Henge jutsu!" I groaned, as did the rest of the class, before we all walked up to the front of the room and Naruto was cut loose.

After a few people that I didn't know had been up, Haruno Sakura was called up. I never really liked that girl, I mean, who has naturally _pink_ hair? It's impossible. I swear she dies it regularly so it's that colour. That plus the fact that she's self-conscious about her _forehead_? Really, what the fudge? Why worry about something as completely and utterly stupid as that. She's the know-it-all of the class as well. Every single time Iruka-sensei asked a question, you could always bet anyone who was new to the class that her hand would be in the air first. Let's just say that Rin has won a lot of money off the new kids. I was, however, brought back to reality by her annoying voice.

"Alright, Sakura here, let's do it. Henge!" I groaned, rolling my eyes. Another thing to add to that list, she always did pointless introductions of herself every, _single_, time we reviewed a jutsu. I rolled my eyes yet again as I noticed that she had transformed into Iruka-sensei. Teacher's pet.

"Transformed into me? Good." She transformed back into herself then and clutched her hands into loose fists, bringing her arms up to her chest as her cheeks went red and her eyes closed.

"Yes! I did it!" Then she opened her eyes again and looked at Sasuke, who was currently standing next to me.

"Sasuke, did you see that?!" I heard him 'tsk' in an annoyed fashion. Although I could relate to his attitude problem concerning Sakura, he was so…..I dunno how to explain it, he just had this negative aura that surrounded him like a blanket all the time.

"Next, Mitsuruki Aissa!" I sighed and stepped forward, thought for a moment, then put my hands together in the form of the ram hand sign and concentrated on my chakra for a moment.

"Henge!" I called as a white puff of smoke surrounded me as I felt myself shrink to about 3 and a half feet tall. When the smoke cleared, most of the girls in the room 'aw'ed at 'my'cuteness. I grinned and transformed back to myself. Iruka-sensei smiled.

"Transformed into your younger brother Hotaru. Very good. Next, Uchiha Sasuke." I walked to the end of the line as Sasuke stepped forward and also transformed into Iruka-sensei without a word being spoken.

"Uh…good." Iruka-sensei murmured, before writing the marks down on his clip board.

"Next, Uzumaki Naruto." I leaned forward slightly as Naruto pushed himself forward from leaning on the row of desks behind where we were standing.

"This is a total waste of time, Naruto." Nara Shikamaru muttered boredly.

"We always pay for your screw-ups." Yamanaka Ino added grumpily.

"Like I care." Naruto replied before stepping forward. After a moment, I noticed that visible chakra started to surround him.

"Henge!" I twitched slightly as he appeared as a naked, curvaceous woman with long legs and long blonde hair in two ponytails, with clouds covering certain parts of the body that I don't want to disclose.

She blew a kiss to Iruka-sensei, who went white as a sheet before getting a massive nose bleed. I shook my head before slapping my forehead.

"Anata no baka." I mumbled. Naruto transformed back into himself and cracked up laughing.

"Gotcha! With my Oiroke no jutsu." Iruka-sensei now had twisted up tissues stuffed up his nose and made use of his slightly fearsome atama no ooki Jutsu.

"Cut the stupid tricks! This is your last warning!" I winced, I kinda felt bad for Naruto at the present moment. Naruto none-the-less walked to the end of the line as Iruka continued to clean his nostrils of blood while writing what seemed to be a big fat zero next to Naruto's name on his clipboard.

He sighed then, looking up along the line to where the first person was before turning his gaze back to his clipboard.

"Next, Akabara Rin." I grinned mentally, this was going to be _very_ interesting. Besides Naruto, Rin was the only other person who could make the entire class crack up in hysterics, not concerning her, however.

I watched as Rin seemed to be in thought for a moment, before she grinned. I knew this was going to be a good one.

"Henge!" She exclaimed as the familiar white puff of smoke engulfed her. I could tell the whole class was watching in anticipation. After the smoke cleared, Naruto, by this time, had turned around to face what was seemingly a perfect clone of….me. Naruto blinked, then looked back and forth between myself, and the other me. Naruto then turned, in his form of dramatically, to me, and pointed at the other me.

"Wah! Aissa-san! Did you use a bunshin jutsu again?!" I blinked, then cracked up laughing, realising that I could have some fun with this too. Then, I cleared my throat. People were about to get a taste of how well both Rin and I could imitate their voices.

"No, you dobe, it's a clone of me." I said in a perfect imitation of Uchiha Sasuke's voice. I watched with a smirk as aforementioned Uchiha twitched and looked at me like I had grown a third eye and a second head. Naruto then looked to Sasuke as Rin cleared her throat before speaking up.

"No way! It's a clone of me, geez, get it right Naruto-san." Rin imitated Inuzuka Kiba's voice perfectly this time. I laughed mentally before clearing my throat again.

"No, it's a clone of me." I claimed in a flawless imitation of Iruka-sensei's voice. Iruka-sensei looked pointedly at me, then at the other me, also know as the one and only Akabara Rin. Rin couldn't help herself however and cleared her throat again.

"No way! It's a clone of me! Ttebayo!" Naruto by this time had swirly eyes, and I cracked up laughing, my voice my own again. I looked up as I stood straight again after laughing along with the rest of the class before smiling at the very confused Naruto.

"Gomenassai, Naruto-san, but I don't think that Rin is my bunshin, since I haven't used that jutsu at all today." Naruto mock glared at me as I smiled sheepishly as the rest of the class settled down and Rin undid the Henge jutsu, becoming herself again. She walked over to me and we slapped a high five.

"Aissa-chan and Rin-chan: 1." I grinned and finished of the rest of Rin's statement.

"Everyone else: 0."

* * *

I sighed as I walked through the streets of Konoha that afternoon. I contemplated some things, namely the fact that the graduation exam is being held tomorrow. I looked up towards the Hokage faces and saw that they were covered in graffiti. I giggled, realising that the culprit was Naruto-san, and that he was up there scrubbing at one of the faces with Iruka-sensei keeping watch. That would explain why Iruka-sensei brought Naruto into class tied up like he did. As I walked past, I vaguely heard Iruka-sensei call something along the lines of 'you're not going home until you've cleaned up every last drop of paint'. I winced slightly, feeling sorry for Naruto as I made my way home.

"I'm home!" I called after I shut the front door behind me. I sat down and pulled my sandals off and left my bag at the door as I walked into the traditional house.

"Onee-chan!" I heard a familiar voice call. I smiled as I knelt on the floor and held my arms out as my otouto, Hotaru, ran into my arms and wrapped his chubby little arms around my neck.

"Hey, how's my otouto-chan doing?" Hotaru pouted at my use of 'chan', but informed me of his day none-the-less. I laughed when he was finished, and ruffled his little mop of curly strawberry blonde hair.

"Sounds like you had an exciting day today, Hotaru-chan." Hotaru nodded eagerly. I smiled, happy that I at least had family, and a friend I could trust. Nothing else really mattered other than the people close to me. To me, their lives were more important than my own, no matter what. So, when it comes down to it, I'd protect them all with my life. I looked back at Hotaru then.

"By the way, Hotaru-chan, where are Kaa-san and Tou-san?" Hotaru pondered for a moment, then seemingly remembered something.

"They said they had ta go on a misson." I nodded. That it explains everything. Mum and Dad are both in the ANBU Black Ops. Now that I remember, I think that's when they met, according to Kaa-san. She had said that for her, it was like love at first sight, Tou-san had sad the same thing.

Tou-san is originally from the Hoshigakure, the village hidden in the stars. He told me that by his clans ways, every member is named after a star at birth, and my aunt, Natsuhi, was named after the red star, Natsuhiboshi. I remember a certain lullaby that she would sing to my cousin, as well as me, whenever Tou-san and I visited them, years before they disappeared.

After dinner that night, to lull Hotaru to sleep, I brought the memory of that lullaby forth to my conscious mind and sang it quietly, liltingly.

_**Natuhiboshi's Lullaby(Hidden star ark)**_

_Natsuhiboshi, why are you so red?_

_Because I had a sad dream last night._

_My eyes are red from the tears I shed._

_Swollen as I cried._

_Natsuhiboshi, why've you lost your way?_

_I'm searching for a child who's gone afar._

_He can't be found, though I search all day._

_My sad dreams come once more._

I sighed once I finished the lullaby, stroking Hotaru's head softly as his eyes remained closed for the night. I kissed his forehead lightly, before standing and walking out the bedroom door, shutting it softly behind me.

That lullaby, despite its melancholy words, always lulled myself and my cousin, Sumaru to sleep whenever aunt Natsuhi sang it. That was ten years ago though, and it surprises me that I remember it so well. I walked quietly into my bedroom and shut the door behind me, leaving it open a crack in case Hotaru woke up and needed me for something. I changed into a set of pyjamas and fell into my bed tiredly, having just enough energy to pull the covers over my weary body before I too, succumbed to sleep.

* * *

I moaned as I felt I was being shaken into wakefulness. I yawned and rolled over, turning to see that one of the members of the ANBU Black Ops, wearing a mask that resembled a bird, and behind him, a man with a mask resembling a cat, who was holding a tired Hotaru, were in my bedroom.

I looked to the man in front of me curiously.

"Is something wrong, sir?" I asked quietly, cautiously. He nodded solemnly.

"Yes, are you and your brother Aissa and Hotaru Mitsuruki?" Suspicious now, I nodded cautiously. He gently pulled me into a sitting position.

"I apologise, but I need your brother as well as yourself to come with us. Unfortunately, you're not going to like the reasons behind all this." I nodded understandingly, but then glanced at the clock by my bedside to see that it was 2:30 in the morning.

"Alright, I consent."

~*~*~*~***~*~*~*~

The ANBU Black Op with the bird mask on knocked on the door to the Sandaime Hokage's office quietly and quickly. A muffled 'enter' sounded from the other side of the door and the ANBU Black Op opened it and ushered me inside. The other Black Op carried my brother inside and handed him over to me.

"Thank you." I murmured. They nodded and disappeared. I turned to face the Hokage and noticed that Okaa-san and Otou-san were in the room as well.

"You wanted to see me? Hokage-sama, Tou-san, Kaa-san?" The Hokage nodded and beckoned me forward with his hand. Cautiously, I stepped forward. Kaa-san stepped forward and gently took Hotaru-chan from my arms.

"Aissa-san," I turned to the Hokage and listened to what he had to say. "Your parents and I have discussed this beforehand, and we have come to an agreement and have decided that it is time to inform you as to why you were isolated for a majority of your young life and also why most of the villagers treat you with contempt." I nodded, taking in the seriousness of this, as well as the nervous tension in the room. I looked to my parents then.

"Your parents wish that you listen to this information, and do not act rashly upon it." I became worried then. My parents weren't looking me in the eye, and they hadn't said a thing at all since I arrived. I turned back to the Hokage as he sighed, rubbing his temples.

"You know of the legend of the Yondaime Hokage sealing two demons into two babies, one who's umbilical cord was freshly cut and the other who'd been born on the eve of fools, yes?" I nodded slowly, taking in this information.

"…_.and the other born on the eve of fools…."_I gasped, my eyes widening as my hands flew to my mouth.

"No." I whispered. I shook my head. I couldn't be true, it just couldn't be.

"It is my most sorrowful duty, Aissa-san, that you are the vessel of the Yonbi, the four tailed Inu Youkai." I was out the door like a shot, tears rolling down my cheeks. Blinded by my sorrow, I ran through the empty streets until I reached the academy, where I tripped over a tree branch, grazing my palms. I curled into a ball, hugging my knees to my chest and just lay there, shuddering with my sobs.

"It can't be true, it just can't be." I whispered in a choked voice.

"What can't be true?" I gasped, sitting bolt upright and looking up to come face to knee with Uchiha Sasuke. I sat back, hugging my knees again.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" I murmured, tucking my face into my knees. I heard him 'hn', then I heard the rustle of clothing as he sat beside me.

"I could ask you the same question." He replied after a moment. I sighed shakily and hiccoughed.

"I was woken up by some members of ANBU Black Ops and taken to see the Hokage with my little brother. My parents were there, but they wouldn't meet my eyes. I found out something horrifying just now, something I think I would have been better off not knowing until much later in life, when I could handle it." And so I spilled the beans to Uchiha Sasuke, told him everything that had happened, and everything I had found out. He just sat there and listened the whole time while silent tears continued to roll down my cheeks. After half an hour of continuing in this manner, I decided I should at least go home and get some sleep. I sighed and stood, dusting off my pyjama pants, and turning to Sasuke, offering him a hand. He looked at it sceptically, before grabbing it and allowing me to pull him up off the ground. I smiled genuinely at him.

"Arigatou gozaimasu, Sasuke-san. I guess all I really needed was an ear to listen to my worries. Really, arigatou, but I should return home now." Sasuke nodded silently and walked off, most likely to his home. I sighed and did the same. When I reached home, I slid the front door open silently and padded through the house. As I passed the kitchen, I heard muffled voice.

"Is Onee-chan gonna come home, Kaa-san?" I stopped short at the sad tone in Hotaru's voice. I didn't hear a response.

"I miss Onee-chan, Kaa-san." Hotaru started to cry then. Making my mind up, I padded back to the front door and slid it open and shut more loudly than I had when I came in the first time. I heard a gasp as I turned from the door to see that Hotaru had run out and his teary eyes were wide at the sight of me.

"Onee-chan, you're back!" He ran to me and jumped into my outstretched arms like he did hours before and I hugged him tightly.

"Hotaru-chan." I mumbled, kissing his chubby cheek as he cried. He pulled back and looked at me then.

"Onee-chan, why did you wun away? I thawt you weren't gonna come back." He asked me. I sighed and hugged him close again.

"Don't worry, I'm home now." I murmured. I looked over his head to Kaa-san, who was standing in the hall silently, her eyes fixed on me. I kissed the crown of Hotaru's head and started to walk towards the stairs, not offering Kaa-san another glance until either she or Tou-san explained the full story.

"Come on, Hotaru-chan, you need sleep and so do I, I have my graduation exam tomorrow." I heard a gasp behind me, but didn't look back as I walked upstairs. After putting Hotaru in bed again, I returned to my room and pulled out another pair of pyjamas, which were clean and not grass stained – yeas, I am OCD about that – I crawled tiredly back into bed, shut off my bedside lamp and fell asleep straight away.


	3. Chapter 2

_***Chapter 2 –Exams***_

_~Rin~_

I poked my head out the door of my large room, seeing that the coast was clear. I breathed out a small bit of the breath I'd been holding in my throat for a while and then bolted fast out the door, zooming down the corridor. I heard a door slam open around the next corner but I kept sprinting, swerving to avoid his arm and then jumping over the second, flashing the scowling boy a peace sign as I laughed. He leapt after me and grabbed my arm, throwing me into the wall of his room, holding me there with my arm held behind my back.

"You're not going anywhere unless I say so, sweetheart." He laughed at me as I grit my teeth. He was such a pig, and I hated every single part of him. I scowled and elbowed him in the stomach with my free arm as hard as I could; making him let me go as I bolted down the corridor again, past elaborate buildings, doors, corridors and gardens on my way.

Jeez, why does the compound have to be so big? And why does my room have to be smack bang in the middle of it?

That was when I caught sight of the gate and I grinned as I saw that the Akabara compound was bolted shut tightly.

"I think it's time for a little jump!" I laughed, flipping into a handstand and vaulting over the high gate and landing in a crouch outside my huge home. I immediately heard familiar footsteps zooming towards the gate and I jumped up, sprinting towards the Academy.

"No way am I gonna be late for the exam!" I yelled back to the boy who was standing outside of the compound, looking utterly annoyed as he slapped his forehead and shook his head.

That guy really does have major issues; I'm just being me after all!

I kept running, I really didn't want to stop so I guess I was safe. That was when I noticed that the Academy was coming up fast, and with a yell I lowered my torso and skidded to a screeching halt right outside the Academy doors, kicking up a huge cloud of dirt and dust towards the Academy.

I stood up straight and cracked my neck, clapping my hands happily as the dust cleared in front of me. I smiled and looked towards the single unfortunate student who had been standing outside while I'd been skidding to a dirty halt. The boy now had dirt and dust on his clothes and an unhappy smirk planted on his features. I laughed as he shook the dust off his clothes and off his head and then shook his head at me with a smirk.

"Jeez, what were you standing there for Sasuke-kun? It's not like you couldn't have got out of the way." I laughed as the two of us walked through the doors. We were okay talking, I mean, we weren't some of the all too many fangirls at this Academy, so Aissa and I were able to talk to him normally. Sasuke-kun gave an agitated 'hn' as we walked through the halls. I stopped as I noticed a small pile of dirt right on top of his strange but cool looking fringe and then stepping in front of him, my hand finding his hair. It was actually quite soft, compared to its spiky cut, and I brushed off the dirt and then touched his hair again.

Then I pulled back my hand sharply as I turned around and walked swiftly towards the door, feeling my face colour just the smallest bit. I heard Sasuke-kun walking behind me and I went faster, then he went faster, and then suddenly I saw the door to our classroom coming up, and I broke into a run, then so did he. I skidded to a light halt and then pulled open the sliding door, making it bang against its hinges as I announced my arrival with a huff and a sigh. Sasuke-kun appeared behind me and I quickly stepping into the room, flipping my hair as I went, causing everybody to look at me.

"Sasuke-kun's been following me, and I don't like it!" I pointed at the boy dressed in dark blue and white standing in the doorway and smiling at him as I made my way up the steps. He scowled at me as he put his hands in his pockets, walking towards his usual spot at the back of the room as I made my way up towards the side of the room, my usual spot.

That was when I noticed that there was one person who was not looking at me and who wasn't paying attention to anything much. I saw that the expression on her face was blank as she looked down at the desk morbidly, unusual strands of hair sticking out of her ponytail that weren't part of her fringe. In fact, she looked kind of scruffy today.

I was beginning to feel a bit morbid myself from Aissa's current state, which doesn't happen very often.

"Hey, Ai-chan, what's up?" I sat down next to her and put my hand on her shoulder as she suddenly snapped out of her state and smiled at me. She was trying to look cheerful but I could just tell that something was wrong. Aissa never really has been that much of a liar.

"Oh, nothing Rin-chan, I'm just tired." She told me, rubbing her eye to prove her point. I looked at her; no smile on my face as she then sighed and looked away, quickly scrawling a note in her notebook and sliding it towards me.

'I'll tell you later' it read, and I nodded as she scrunched it up and stuck it in her pocket. I then smiled at my best friend and then proceeded to try and make her laugh, which I know that I am very good at.

It worked, as usual.

I waved to Naruto-san as he walked into the room and then nearly immediately after Iruka-sensei stepped into the room, brandishing a clip board and followed by a couple of Jounin, like Mizuki-sensei.

"We will now start the final exam." Iruka-sensei told us, "When your name is called proceed to the testing area. The final test will be on, the Bunshin jutsu."

Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Naruto-san was holding his head in his hands, obviously not happy about the choice of Jutsu for the exam. I smiled weakly to myself as Aissa noticed as well and bit her lip. The two of us, of course, were quite good at this particular technique, although our friend Naruto-san had quite a bit of trouble with it.

In short, it was his worst one.

So, we were called up in alphabetical order, so this weird guy Aburame Shino was called up first. He was a really strange guy, didn't really talk much but when he did it was either intimidating or just long speeches that sometimes get a tiny bit poetic or off track. I waited, and then not long after he came out with a headband on his forehead, above these glasses he wears.

Now it was my turn.

I heard my name called and I quickly stood up, giving Aissa a low five and then calmly walking my way towards the door. When I got to the examination room, I simply stepped in. I saw that the proctors were, of course, Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei. I smiled at them and I stepped up, my hands forming a hand sign as I concentrated on my chakra.

"Bunshin no jutsu!" I called as six clones appeared, three either side of me, all smiling as a strand of hair fell over all seven of our faces. We looked at it in agitation, and then blew the hair out of our faces, going back to smiling at the two proctors.

"Very good, Rin-san, you pass." Iruka-sensei beckoned for me to come up towards the table and I did, seeing that he was holding out a dark blue headband for me. I smiled and took it as I thanked him, walking back out the door. I quickly hid my headband in my pocket and pulled my white and green shirt down over it, looking sad as I entered the room again, rubbing my eyes as my friends jumped up. Kiba-kun, Naruto-san, Shikamaru-san and Aissa all looked shocked.

"Don't tell me you didn't pass?" Kiba-kun breathed, looking sympathetic.

"No way! Of course I passed you idiot!" I pulled my headband out of my pocket and laughed as I held it up, revealing the Konoha symbol etched into the metal. I grinned as Aissa slapped my hand. I quickly tied my headband around my neck, where my fishnets that were under my long sleeved white shirt finished and flashing a peace sign at the rest of the class.

I looked up at Sasuke-kun to see him looking at me, a small smile on his features that was hidden by his hair and his face facing slightly downwards. Sasuke-kun noticed that I'd noticed him watching and turned to look out the window, lacing his fingers together in front of him as I saw the slightest bit of light pink under his eyes.

Now that was surprising.

I didn't know how much time had passed until my friend walked out for her turn to do the exam. She walked out with a headband and a grin that almost looked too big for her face.

* * *

With our heads held high and our headbands keeping us proud, we were all outside the Academy, being greeted by our parents and guardians, when I realised that mine weren't here.

Damn straight, they're too busy and Kaa-sama was too, well, _her_.

Then I noticed that Akabara Kunihiko was walking down the street towards me. He was one of my distant cousins in our Clan, but we hung around a bit and he was a good friend. Kunihiko-kun was the person that would always warn me when people were watching or coming to talk, so I could put on the act I always had to, and then also to tell me about things like what was going on in the Clan, because I never know. None of people like me know about it, we're just not important enough. He was a Chunnin, but he was obviously here to see me over instead of my Ojii-sama or Kaa-sama.

Kaa-sama wouldn't be able to come anyway, doubt she'd be let that far out of the compound.

Still, as he was walking down the street I ran to meet him, hugging him tightly as I saw Aissa-chan look at me with a kind of half smile while her parents talked to Iruka-sensei.

"Hey, come and meet Aissa-chan, I've told you about her, remember?" I pulled Kunihiko-kun towards my best friend as the parentals finished talking to Iruka-sensei and he looked at me. Kunihiko looked a little bit embarrassed as I pulled him over to meet them, but obviously he didn't mind.

"Hey, this is Kunihiko, he's from my Clan! My direct family couldn't come, so one of my cousins had to come instead! Hope you don't mind?" I looked at Iruka-sensei as he smiled at my cousin, shaking his head, before I turned to Aissa-chan, "Aissa-chan, Kunihiko-kun, Kunihiko-kun, Aissa-chan, hope you two can get to know each other at a later date, but basically she's my best friend and he's my best friend in the Clan."

Aissa-chan greeted Kunihiko-kun and then he turned to Iruka-sensei, and the two of them got talking as I greeted Aissa-chan's parentals. They smiled at me, looking a little wary and tired, and I realised that it must have something to do with Aissa-chan's unhappy mood this morning.

I looked around to see that the other students were all happily talking to each other or their parents and I saw that Naruto-san wasn't anywhere in the crowd. I walked to the side of the crowd and looked out below the tree in front of the Academy, the one with the swing on it, to see Naruto-san sitting there, facing the crowd of proud parents and students with a sad look on his face as he swung sideways on the swing the tiniest bit in the dark shade.

He didn't have a headband, I realised,

"There, you see him?" one of the women standing near me whispered to each other, looking in the direction of the blonde haired boy, who was looking depressed, "It's that boy, I heard he's the only one who failed." The other one replied, looking disgusted. I stood up a little bit straighter and looked away, still listening.

"Hum, well it serves him right." The first woman told him, her voice sounding accusing for some reason. My eyes narrowed in the direction on the women. What did he ever do to them? Naruto-kun may be a trouble maker but he wasn't the kind of person to hurt people!

"Just imagine what would happen if he became a Ninja, I mean he's the boy who-" the second woman was cut suddenly.

"Shh!" she shushed harshly, glaring at her friend, "We're not allowed to talk about that!" I looked at them, suspicious now. What had been so bad that they weren't allowed to talk about it and about Naruto-kun no less?

That was when I noticed that Mizuki-sensei had appeared beside Naruto, smiling down at him. I turned away quickly, walking past the ladies with a small death stare, making them flinch and look afraid. I flipped my hair as I passed.

"That boy happens to be my friend, and whatever he's done it doesn't matter. I may not know but whatever it is it's no reason to talk about him like that, you don't know him." I hissed to them in a low voice, making one of the women pull the other away from me, both of them looking a bit horrified by my expression.

I noticed Sasuke-kun watching me from the edge of the crowd, and I smiled at him, turning away and walking back towards Aissa-chan and Kunihiko-kun, passing Iruka-sensei and the Third Hokage on my way. That was when I heard something else interesting.

"Iruka, there's something we need to talk about." The Hokage sounded serious, but I kept walking, trying not to seem as if I had listened. I quickly glanced towards where Naruto-san and Mizuki-sensei had been just moments ago, seeing that they were nowhere in sight and the wooden swing was swaying in the breeze.

That was when I realised that I was a couple of meters away from the crowd. I could feel something blowing closer to me, something familiar, and I stiffened as I realised what it was. The smell of blood was in the Air, although not many people could smell it obviously.

"_Hmm, so you graduated, interesting…I'm glad to see you've passed, even if it means making it harder for me to do what I have to do, baby._" I heard a smooth and all too familiar voice in my ear whisper, and I instantly shot around, swatting it away with my hand.

Of course, there was nothing there, nothing visible anyway.

I saw that Kunihiko-kun was looking at me, obviously having smelt it and noticed it as well, knowing who it was. He knew me well, both Kunihiko-kun and him, even if he wasn't really around me that much. Kunihiko-kun walked over to me, his hands in his pockets and placing a hand on my shoulder.

"You okay? Did he just talk to you?" he asked, a little bit amused but also concerned. Of course Kunihiko-kun knew how I felt about him, about the whole situation, but he couldn't hide the amusement in his voice.

Why was this so entertaining for him?

"Yeah, he did and what of it? What did you expect from the bastard?" I hissed back, walking towards Ai-chan who was walking quietly to her parents. My expression turned to annoyance as I heard his ringing laughter in my ears, making me swat around my head, before the smell was gone.

I was now in an extremely foul mood.

Aissa-chan noticed my expression and came running over, looking concerned at my anger. Kunihiko chuckled and I noticed out of the corner of my eye him looking at a nearby tree, where I knew that he was hiding.

"Hey, what's wrong? What happened?" She asked me, looking me up and down and looking around, trying to find the problem. I smiled at her and then put an arm around her shoulders, looking at her parentals and Kunihiko-kun.

"Sorry, but is it okay if I take Aissa-chan out of your hair for a little while? It's been a while since we've just talked."

"Of course, we don't mind." Mrs Mitsuruki replied, looking at her husband. I grinned and then quickly hugged Kunihiko-kun a goodbye.

"If you see that moron when you get home, tell him to go to hell from me, and also tell him he's a jerk and he's an absolute idiot, and not to ever bother me when I'm in a good mood again. It makes me edgy." I quickly pulled back after that quick statement in his ear. He laughed and told me he does that kind of thing nearly every day, so he thought I could handle it.

I quickly pulled Aissa-chan down the street, pulling her towards one of my favourite traditional restaurants, Dango. I love old style food, like origini, miso soup, udon, soba and ramen, oh, and I really love dumplings.

…Mmmmmm, dumplings…

As I pulled her into the place, I pointed towards a booth seat and we sat down, looking at the menus as I pulled out some money from in my sleeve to show her that it was my treat.

"Alright, so what's with the sudden freaky depressed mode, it was really freaking me out you know." I paused as she looked up from her menu, straight at me with blinking eyes, "Oh and does it have anything to do with the Parentals because it seemed like it did." I added before she could say anything, not that she was anyway. Ai-chan was silent for a little while, looking down at her lap until I heard her take a deep breath and then saw her look at me.

"Yeah, it does have a little to do with them." She breathed. Then she told me a story, something I didn't think I could believe. At first I thought she was making it up, but then I saw it in her eyes, that this entire thing was true. Aissa-chan told me about how the Yondaime Hokage had sealed two Youkai into the bodies of two babies, one who was just born and another born on April Fools. I instantly knew it was her, and then she got into the story of how she was told last night, obviously not too happy.

I was really surprised when she mentioned telling Sasuke-kun.

"So, what you're telling me is that Duck-butt boy Uchiha Sasuke-kun knew before your best friend?" I laughed, trying to lighten the mood. Aissa-chan cracked a smiled and nodded apologetically. "Well then, it's better than not telling anybody, I'm sorry I couldn't have been the one to find you but as you know I have a curfew." I continued, rolling my eyes as I made that last comment about my horrifying time.

I had to be home by seven-forty-five and no later.

It was utterly ludicrous!

"Yeah, well, whatever, at least now you know. I'm really sorry I couldn't tell you earlier but as you know we were in class." Ai-chan apologised as I laughed, tapping the menu.

"So, how about we get some chow, just so I don't go into shock about the fact that my best friend has got the Four Tailed Dog inside of them." I smiled as I told my friend, making her laugh before she realised that I wasn't laughing, because I was totally serious.

So I had around three plates of dumplings plus four origini and Aissa-chan had the other two of the origini that I didn't eat plus a fair bit of chicken karaage. We left Dango without me going into shock, and paying a price that I didn't think was entirely fair but I wouldn't get up the waiter because of the occasion, and walked down the busy market streets towards the Mitsuruki place.

Soon the streets would be deserted and stalls and shops packed up, because not much happened after eight and it was around seven-thirty-four at the present.

As soon as we got to the front door and Ai-chan opened it I heard running footsteps and the most adorable voice ever call to his elder sister.

"Onee-chan! Yay! You're home!" Hotaru practically jumped into his sisters arms before noticing me and smiling in the cutest way ever. "Rin-chan!" he cried happily, putting an arm out to me. I laughed and took him from Aissa and gave him a quick hug before setting him down again, hugging Aissa.

"I'll see you tomorrow, and then the day after is our first official day of being Gennin, jeez!" I clapped my hands together excitedly, making her smile one last time before I turned to walk off down the street. I turned the corner and then broke into a sprint.

I was usually a stickler about this part of the rules, but tonight I was carried away, I had a minute and a half to get to the compound, otherwise there'd be all hell to pay from both him and my Ojii-sama. So I sprinted for my life, running so fast that I was a blur through the streets.

_Keep running, keep running, and just keep running! _I thought frantically as I saw the large gates up ahead that were slowly beginning to close. I broke into faster steps as I zoomed towards the gates. My chances of making it were getting slimmer and slimmer, until I was only a meter away from the gate and it was nearly closed. I quickly slipped through as the doors closed fully and narrowly avoided behind squished by them.

The one who was waiting for me at the gate looked amused at my time and he tapped the stopwatch he was holding in his hand, looking like even more of a jerk then he already was.

"Cutting it a bit close there, babe, you got in two seconds before your curfew, good job." He laughed, making me growl and snatch the stopwatch out of his hand, crushing it in my fist and then dropping the pieces. He stopped laughing and just smiled, not looking at the stopwatch but in my eyes, unwavering.

"That really wasn't good for the stopwatch, but it's good your home early, I think it's about time we made our show, otherwise they may think you were late." He whispered to me, trying to reach out and touch my face. I grabbed his hand and tried to hold it there but he pulled the other up. I grabbed that with my other hand but then he quickly leant forwards and pecked me on the forehead, pulling back with a smile as he pushed his arm through mine, pulling me towards the steps.

"Look alive, sweet heart." He breathed out, putting on the easy smile he did with the kind of act that he had to put on. I rolled my eyes and looked at the steps as I walked up them.

"Yeah, like that's going to be easy."

* * *

I was woken up by a commotion in the grounds and I stumbled out of bed, pushing my arms into my soft silk dressing gown and stepping out of my room to find men running around the place, all Ninja.

I spotted him starting towards me with his eyes wide, and I realised that I was of course in one of my nightgowns, which was mid thigh length and the dressing gown was open. The nightgown was white with a small green pattern in one corner and it was low cut, but it was comfy and cute and I liked it.

He obviously liked it too, or how much it revealed.

"Don't even think about it, now what's going on?" I asked him as he grabbed my arm, looking me up and down. I tried to pull my arm from his grip but he held me there, not budging as easily as he did some other times.

"I don't know, but the Jounin are running around like headless chickens because something's happened with some scroll getting stolen and I've been told by Ojii-sama to make sure you didn't leave your room, which means guard duty." He told me, pushing me back towards the open door of my room. I stopped right before the door frame and gripped it, shaking my head.

"Ah, no way are you getting into my room, no way in hell. Besides, what would be so terrible that I might try and escape from my own home?" I asked before I realised what I was saying.

He smiled, and then let go of my arm, gently pushing me back into my room. Shaking his head, his smile turned to a grin and then he had to look down to stifle a laugh.

"You think I'm supposed to believe that even after you've run away, like, ten times?" he chuckled, his arm stretching up to block my way out of the room.

"Hey, I can take care of-"

"No, you can't. Just because you're a Ninja now doesn't mean you can take care of yourself," He put a finger over my mouth to stop me speaking, "and also, it's my job to protect you, and you have to let me because otherwise your end of the act won't work." Pausing, he looked me up and down again, a grin stretching across his face.

"Oh, and by the way, nice nightgown, but I'd like to see what's under it someday, and I will, you know it." He wiggled his eyebrows and I cried out in disgust and outrage, pulling my silk robe around me. He grabbed my hands before I could though and leant forwards to kiss my cheek.

"Stop fighting me, you know we're going to be together, there's nothing to it, my little bell." He murmured against my skin, sending a bad shiver up my spine, making him laugh and making me scowl. Then he simply closed the door and I knew that he was standing in front of it so I couldn't get out even if it tried to.

I growled and kicked the door, before rubbing my toe because it was going to be bruised tomorrow from the hard door. I heard chuckling outside as I cursed, and then I growled again, pulling off my dressing gown and falling onto my bed, sleeping instantly.


	4. Chapter 3

_***Chapter 3 – Night of Awakening***_

_~Aissa~_

I shot up in bed, gasping as a cold sweat erupted on my skin, like ice on a frozen lake. I clutched a hand to my chest, over my heart, as something pained me deeply. Realising something might very well be wrong, I got out of bed and pulled my fluffy white dressing gown around my over sized t-shirt clad form, tying the material belt that held the gown closed before stepping to my door and pressing my ear against it, listening silently for a moment. Hearing nothing, I silently pulled the door open and crept down the hallway to Hotaru's room with the ease and grace of a well trained ninja – which, in essence, is what I am. I pushed the door open and combed my eyes through the entirety of Hotaru's room, where he lay, sleeping on his bed silently, holding onto a teddy bear in his sleep. By chance, I glanced out his bedroom window to see that all the Jonin were running around Konoha like chickens who didn't have their heads chopped off right.(Scientific fact – if you actually _do_ chop the head off of a chicken the wrong way, it can still live, but you have to feed it with a tube).

Deciding to be safe, I picked up Hotaru, and wrapped him in his blanket, his teddy still clutched to his chest, as I silently walked out of the room again. I crept silently throughout the house, checking the whole house over, but I left my parents room until last. After finding nothing out of the ordinary in most of the house, I slowly crept towards my parents bedroom and pressed my ear to the door slowly, listening intently. When I heard nothing I slowly opened the door and scanned the room intently. Nobody was in here either, not even my parents. Now, being the stupid girl I'm known for being, I made my way quickly back to my bedroom, placed Hotaru gently on my bed and dressed quickly in a simple pair of shorts and a t-shirt, before grabbing Hotaru again and opening my window, climbing out and shutting it behind me, before taking off silently towards someone that I hoped would help me.

I tapped on the window softly, and waited impatiently until the window was pulled open and I received a sleepy glare. I simply held my sleeping brother out.

"Look after him, please. Something's wrong." I murmured. He sighed, running a hand through his hair in annoyance.

"No." He retorted, reaching to slide the window shut, which didn't quite work out, since I stuck my foot on the window jamb and the bottom of the window itself.

"Please?" I tried again, adding a begging tone to my voice. He blinked, looking at me blankly for a moment.

"You're not going to let me sleep until I accept, are you?" He asked rhetorically.

"Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!" I retorted jokingly, still holding my sleeping brother in front of me, looking at him pleadingly. He continued to stare blankly at me for a moment, looking annoyed enough to try and force the window shut with me still in the way of the jamb. After a moment longer, he shook his head ruefully, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose a little, as if he had a headache.

"Fine," He muttered. "I don't see why you'd come to me for babysitting duty though." He carefully took my brother from me and I grinned.

"Thanks Duckbutt." I murmured, taking off before he could hurt me in one way or another. I jumped across rooftops and stopped on top of a water tower, looking around Konoha, watching as the Chuunin and Jounin continued running around through the village. I closed my eyes for a moment and concentrated, looking for what, I have no clue, but I felt a spike in chakra somewhere, so I chose to follow that into the forest. I eventually came across a run down, abandoned shack, Iruka-sensei, Naruto and Mizuki-sensei in front of it, Mizuki-sensei spouting some sort of…..wait, what?

"The nine-tailed fox is inside you! You _are_ the nine-tailed fox!" I flinched. Naruto, is like me, only he just found out in the worst possible way. I gasped silently as my parents appeared on the scene. My father stood strong and silent slightly in front of my mother, a hard glare on his features. My mother was also glaring at Mizuki-sensei.

"Mizuki, I should have known that you were behind this!" My father exclaimed, drawing a kunai. I stayed carefully behind the tree that had recently become my hiding place. I tuned out from what was happening for a few moments, before I chanced looking out from behind my tree again. I tuned into the arguing again as Mizuki dislodged one of two large shuriken from his back and started to spin it in his hand.

"Die, Mitsuruki! Your children will soon join you!" With that, Mizuki threw the shuriken and I watched in horror as both of my parents were killed in one blow.

I couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't feel, all I could comprehend was the immense pain in my heart, and the bloodied bodies of my parents before me.

"No…." I whispered brokenly, wide eyed, before I regained my senses, blinking my eyes furiously, before determination etched itself onto my features. I stepped out from behind my tree, pulling out a kunai as I walked out into the clearing. Mizuki, Naruto and Iruka looked at me in surprise as my eyes darkened, the calm before the storm. My face was set into an emotionless mask, my eyes, however, told a different tale.

"You," I murmured, raising my kunai to Mizuki, pausing a moment before throwing it accurately, so it landed just in front of his feet.

"How dare you take the lives of people that weren't yours to end." I murmured in a monotone voice. Mizuki gulped as I glared icily at him, ignoring the pain in my head.

"What gave you the right to kill my parents?" I almost shrieked, my eyes tearing up from the pain in my head. I wasn't going to sink as low as this man before me, but the recently discovered entity in my head was trying to tell me otherwise. I clutched at my head suddenly, crouching to the ground and shaking uncontrollably as the fight continued, then moved away from me. I didn't care for the moment though, all I could comprehend was the harsh growling of the entity within me and the unbearable pain at the backs of my eyes, as if they were being gouged out from the inside of my head.

I didn't realise I was screaming until I gasped for breath. I didn't realised I had curled into foetal position until I relaxed my tensed muscles as I panted and gasped for breath. As I opened my eyes, slowly, I realised I could see everything now with an almost burning clarity that scared the life out of me. I could see the trees behind me without a thought, and I could see through them, as though they were shells that were empty, hollow. I could also make out moving objects, and with a start realised that those moving objects were Naruto, Iruka-sensei and Mizuki. I watched on, now focused on the battle taking place, to see thousands of Naruto appear out of nowhere and beat Mizuki to a pulp, and, with a sigh, I realised it was over. I stood on shaky feet and turned on my heels, running towards where the commotion had taken place.

Upon arrival, I saw Naruto hugging Iruka-sensei as the sun rose. I skidded to a halt, and smiled at Naruto's happiness, as I realised why he was so happy.

"Congratulations, Naruto-san." I murmured after a moment, and Naruto laughed happily, as he turned to look at me.

"Thanks a bunch, Ais-" He stopped himself abruptly as his eyes met mine, before he gained a quizzical look.

"Uh, Aissa-san?" I blinked.

"Yes, Naruto-san?" I asked as Naruto and Iruka-sensei both looked at my eyes confusedly.

"Why do your eyes look like Hinata-san's, only blue?" I gasped, staring at him in wonder. No, it couldn't be possible…..

"I thought it was only a myth or a legend….." I murmured as Iruka-sensei realised why I had said that all of a sudden.

"As did I, Aissa-san. Do you think that your parents….deaths, could have caused it?" I took in a shaky breath and nodded.

"It's quite possible, Iruka-sensei." I murmured. Naruto looked between us quizzically.

"What the Hell is going on with Aissa-san's eyes, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked, well, half screamed, really. I flinched slightly. If I weren't wrong, Naruto just sounded a lot louder than usual, and he smelt distinctly of sweat and ramen. I crinkled my nose slightly. I think I know where the heightened senses were coming from. Well, heightened in the sense I could smell and hear better, my sight seemed to deteriorate and get better at the same time. In the sense that I could see further now, even without what I guessed was my Kekkei Genkai, my clan bloodline ability, but, I could only just see colour, nowhere near as vividly as I could the day before yesterday. I came back to the present, eyeing Naruto levelly.

"Naruto-san, if I'm correct, you heard me scream earlier, yes?" He nodded.

"Well, yeah, I mean, you just lost your parents….." He trailed off and I smiled sadly.

"Naruto-san, you're still as blunt as ever." I murmured, completely off track. He looked at me in question again and I sighed, running my fingers through my hair as I closed my eyes, concentrating on my eyes as I removed the chakra and slight amount of extra blood from them. It was difficult, since this was the first time I had ever had to do it, but I eventually succeeded, I could tell because I could no longer see through my eyelids. I opened my now normal dark, stormy blue eyes as I met Naruto-san's gaze again.

"Naruto-san, before I explain, I think you should first know that there have only been two others with my new ability – the Founder of the Mitsuruki clan, whose name in unknown to me, and my thrice great grandfather." Naruto-san's eyes seemed to enlarge to twice their original size as he digested this information.

"There have only been two – now three – people in the entirety of my clan's existence to ever gain this ability, my clan's dreaded Kekkei Genkai." I murmured this with spite in my voice. Not only was this ability difficult to gain, it was difficult to live with it from then onwards.

"The name given to my clan's bloodline trait, in the height of its power, sent chills down the spine of any enemy that had to face the Founder or my great grandfather during their time." Naruto-san looked to be excited now, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"What's it called?" He asked impatiently, which caused me to smile.

"It's called the Koorigan – the Icy eye technique, and is unique to my clan, but…." I trailed off, the 'but' a murmur that died on my lips quickly.

"To….gain this ability, a clan member had to lose two people of great importance to them. The exception to these methods of gaining our Kekkei Genkai is the Founder – as he was born with the Kekkei Genkai – Mitsuruki legend tells that the Founder was born of ice and spirited away to Konoha, this is because since his birth, his eyes were that colour exactly – the colour of ice. The only way one could tell if the Founder used his Kekkei Genkai was to look for the absence of his pupils, because, like the Byakugan of the Hyuuga clan, the pupil is non-existent, but only during the use of our Kekkei Genkai.

"To 'level up' the Koorigan, for lack of better phrasing, one must be near to death to gain the next level, which will be shown in the form of tomoe in the users eyes. It is unknown whether or not the Founder had to go through this pain." I sighed, running my fingers through my hair.

"I apologise, I would come and celebrate with you, Naruto-san, but I have to make sure that my otouto is alright." Naruto-san nodded, and really surprised me by wrapping his arms around me and hugging me.

"Gomene, Aissa-san, gomene." Naruto-san murmured in my ear. I breathed a shaky sigh, tears pricking at my eyes.

"Arigatou, Naruto-san." I murmured in reply, before he let me go. He offered me a warm, friendly smile, which I returned pitifully, before I waved a farewell and set off back to Sasuke-san's to retrieve my otouto. I just hoped with all of my heart that Hotaru-chan didn't have to share my suffering in the form of our clan's Kekkei Genkai.

_**(Author's Note – I apologise for the short chapter, but I was starting to get writer's block and couldn't think about where I should stop it. When I realised I had, I noticed it was only four pages long, so my apologies again, but hopefully HollyEmpire00 will make chapter four longer than this one ^^;.)**_


	5. Chapter 4

***Okay, ReeRee, here's the fourth chapter for you! I hope all you guys enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!***

***Chapter 4 – Days to Remember***

"Thank you," I told the waitress as she poured me the familiar green tea of the Dango restaurant. I'd been here quite a few times in the last little while, but I was usually a regular customer, so nobody asked questions. I'd skipped breakfast at the compound, deciding to stop in here for an omelette and tea. I sipped my tea quietly, relishing in the light flavour.

I was a little uneasy today.

After the Jounin and all their running around the night before, I couldn't help but think that something was terribly wrong. What Aissa had told me just the day before had made me think, and that combined with the troubles the Jounin had last night, made my stomach churn. It's not every day that your best friend tells you that she's the vessel for a Youkai, and every Jounin in your clan decides to run around like the Hokage's been pushed off a cliff.

I smiled down at my omelette, taking a small bite. It was concerning me for a long while, and after a time of mulling it over in between tea and food, I decided I was going to visit her a little earlier today, just in case anything was wrong. I stood up, paying for my food and left. Walking down the street, my hands comfortably in my pockets, I noticed somebody at the end of the street. I smiled and waved to him, calling out;

"Hey~! Sasuke-san!" I laughed as he looked up, blinking at me. Then his face was set back in his customary blank scowl as he pushed away from the wall he was leaning against, waiting until I caught up with him before he walked with me. He looked a little tired, to me.

"What's up, Sasuke-san?" I asked, noticing the tiny bags under his dark eyes. "Rough night?"

"Yeah, just a bit." He muttered, running a hand through his hair before returning it to his pockets. "Aissa-san came to me last night- gave me her little brother to look after." My eyes widened and I stopped walking. Sasuke stopped a few steps ahead, looking back at me.

"What?" I asked, shocked.

"She came to my window last night, gave me her little brother and left. Ai-san didn't really give me much of a choice in the matter," he sounded kind of annoyed, "then she came back at some ungodly hour and picked him up." Sasuke took a step towards me, his eyebrow raised. "Hey, how come she couldn't just drop him off with you? Why'd she pick me?"

I froze up. "Ah," I said very intelligently. "Well, ah, she's never really been to the Akabara compound before, and I don't really think that…they'd let her in to see me, let alone drop off her brother." I lied quickly, breathing out a slight breath. Nice! That was a good lie for a change!

Sasuke looked a bit wary, but then turned and kept walking, slouching a little. I jogged to catch up to him, one hand in my pocket. "So, what do you think happened? With Ai, I mean?" My brow furrowed. "You don't think it has anything to do with the Jounin last night, do you?"

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "Maybe."

I rolled my eyes. "I know about Ai, Sasuke-san, so cut the crap already." I crossed my arms as we crossed the bridge, and we slowed to a stop to lean against the railing. "You think I didn't know? She's my best friend; why wouldn't I know?"

He sighed, crossing his arms over the railing to lean against the red wood. "Well, I just didn't know if she'd told you yet. She was pretty upset when she told me."

"Yeah, I know. She told me over dinner last night. I was on my way to see her when I met up with you." I rested my chin on my hand as I looked out over the river that ran through Konohagakure. We stood there in silence for a little while, just listening to the birds in the trees and the flowing of the river. Then Sasuke pushed back from the railing with a sigh.

"I'd better get going. I've got stuff to do." He told me curtly, before he turned with a small wave back towards the market place. I smiled and gave a small wave after him, before we parted ways. I walked towards the other residential area on the other side of the river, humming to myself lightly. As I rounded the corner into her street, I noticed that the paper hadn't been brought in yet from out the front of her house. My brow furrowed in confusion. Usually, Mr Mitsuruki would bring it in at the crack of dawn. I dismissed it, walking towards the front door.

I knocked lightly on the door, tapping my foot as I waited for somebody to answer. A few minutes passed and nobody answered. I frowned and knocked again, louder this time. There was no answer. I tried the handle and the door opened. It was unlocked. That was also strange.

Stepping into the house, I took off my shoes. "Hello? Mr and Mrs Mitsuruki? Aissa? Hotaru-chan? Where are you! Hello?" There was no answer. Instead, I heard a small bump and then the sound of soft, running footsteps. Hotaru rounded the corner and crashed into me, hugging my legs with a strength I didn't know existed in a kid. I could see his shoulders shaking and my arms wrapped around him as I slid to my knees in front of him. He was crying.

"Hey, sweetie-cakes, what's wrong?" I asked, using my soft shirt to wipe his face. I didn't care about that, it was rare that I ever saw Hotaru crying. He sniffled and more tears rolled down his cheeks. "Oh, sweetie, it's alright! Tell me what's wrong."

"I-It's Kaa-san and T-Tou-san!" he cried. My eyes widened and I looked at him in concern, egging him to continue. He sniffled and choked up. "T-T-They're- it's, t-they're, ah-"

"They're gone." A voice said from in the hallway. I looked up and saw Aissa standing there, her eyes downcast and her hair messy from lack of sleep. Tear tracks stained her cheeks and I stood from where Hotaru was, my eyes showing my confusion.

"What do you mean?" I asked softly, my hand resting on Hotaru's head.

"I mean they're _gone_, Rin!" she cried a little louder at me from the corner of the hallway. Her fists clenched and I saw more tears prick at her eyes. Comprehension dawned on me and I let out a small, shuddering gasp. Hotaru ran towards his sister, hugging her leg tightly. I took a step towards her, shocked.

"You mean t-they're…" I trailed off, not wanting to say the word for Hotaru's sake. Aissa nodded, tears falling from her eyes. My heart stopped and I felt numb.

Mr and Mrs Mitsuruki were dead.

I looked into Aissa's eyes, searching her face. There was no doubt in my mind that what she was telling me was true, but…how was that possible? The two of them were some of the best Shinobi in the entire village; how could they just be alive and happy one day, and dead the next? I felt silent tears slide down my cheeks as I noticed a photo on the wall, the four of them smiling happily at the camera. I took another step towards my best friend and wrapped her in a tight hug. Her arms came up to hug me back tight, leaning against me in her moment of weakness. She started to cry.

"Shh, it's okay, Ai," I told her, stroking her hair. "It'll all be okay."

I had to go back to the compound to get a few things, and ask permission to stay past curfew, but after a gruelling hour of questions from family members, I was finally allowed to stay with Aissa over the weekend. She was really having it rough. Her little brother was still so young, he couldn't possibly understand what was going on. It was going to be tough from then on out to survive. I told Aissa that I'd help out in any way I could, but she said that she didn't want charity.

I'd told her it wasn't charity. That was the end of the conversation.

That night, we were all in the living room. Hotaru had fallen asleep on the couch an hour earlier, so Ai had whipped up some soba for us. I'd brought some rice balls from the kitchen at the compound, so we shared some of those between us.

"What are you going to tell Hotaru-chan?" I asked her quietly. Ai sat across from me, quietly eating a rice ball. She'd told me about everything that had happened the night before, and I was shocked to find out that Naruto of all people was the Kyuubi no Kitsune! But I guess now it all made sense; everything about their lives.

"I don't know." She replied, placing her half eaten rice ball back on the plate. I smiled and stood up to go and turn up the heater. It was getting cold, and I knew that when it got cold, Ai felt it really bad. When I came back, Aissa was leaning against the couch, her eyes closed. I took a blanket out of the closet and draped it over her, much like we'd done for Hotaru.

"Get some rest, Ai," I murmured. "You're gonna need it."

I stayed with the Mitsuruki's over the entire weekend, knowing that when I got back to the compound there'd be all hell to pay. But, I didn't worry about that. My best friend needed me to help her get back on track, and there was no way I was going to leave her in her time of need like that. Especially not when she's gone through the shock of her parents being gone and-

-well…gaining her Kekkei Genkai.

As we walked towards the Academy on Monday morning, both of us clutching one of Hotaru's hands all the way until we dropped him off at kindergarten, we were a little bit apprehensive as to what might happen. I smiled at her as we reached the gates of the Academy, putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into a tight, friendly hug. She spluttered and her arms pin wheeled, but then I let her go with a grin.

"Alright, you ready to go?" I asked enthusiastically. Ai laughed at me, returning my grin.

"Yeah, I am."

***Aaaaaand there ends chapter four! Yays! There you go, Rach! That leaves it right up to you to do the picking of the teams in class and then meeting with the Sensei! Hurrah! I finished the chapter in record time (two days notice) although I probably SHOULD have been working on this for, like, AGES! –Cries- I'm sorry! I was caught up in exams and piano and I'M SO SORRYYYY!**

**But you've got it now, so enjoy! =]***


	6. Chapter 5

_**Collaborated Author's Note! The First!**_

_**Rachie: So, here we are at chapter 5 (finally!)**_

_**Holly: Yeah. Well, ah, that's kinda my fault**_

_**Rachie: *glares at Holly* Gee, really? I hadn't noticed…**_

_**Holly: *sniffles and cries* I'M SORRY! I've told you that at LEAST twelve times!**_

_**Kiba: Actually, yeah, she has ._.**_

_**Holly: *grins* yes, see, I HAVE!**_

_**Rachie: *glares at Kiba and Holly* I don't know about you two, but I see dead people walking…**_

_**Sasuke: *smirks* yeah, can I help make 'em walk?**_

_**Rachie: Please do**_

_**Holly: *whimpers* Ah, okay, running away now!**_

_***Kiba and Holly run away screaming***_

_**Rachie: Can I get a disclaimer please?**_

_**Sasuke: *hnn* Fine- Rachie and Holly do not own anything whatsoever because they're poor people. Sorry, but it's true. If they owned everything, well, that'd just be awesome.**_

_**Rachie: o3o…Sasuke, I didn't know you cared…The only things that Holly and I own are Hotaru, Aissa (Me) and the Akabara clan (Holly), as well as all the original parts and ideas.**_

_***Holly runs back***_

_**Holly: *puffs* yeah, thanks!**_

_**Sasuke: AFTER HER!**_

_**Holly: Nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!**_

_**Rachie: *laughs at Sasuke chasing Holly* Oh, I love being evil sometimes. Anyway, this will be the first of many collaborated Author's Notes to come. Now, read onward for chapter 5 my lovelies! *really suckish evil laugh***_

***Chapter 5 – Orientation***

~Aissa~

I groaned as light travelled across my eyelids, courtesy of the curtains that Rin had ripped open with – I am quite sure – an elegant flourish.

"Come _on_, Ai-chan! Wakey-wakey, eggs and bacey! I have breakfast ready for you downstairs." I groaned and rolled away from the light, pulling my calypso blue doona over my head.

"Five more minutes, Rin." I moaned, burying my head under my pile of pillows. I heard a sigh, and then the closing of my bedroom door. I couldn't help but smile though. Rin had spent the entire weekend with Hotaru and I. She'd blatantly refused to leave us alone, despite the fact that she was going to be in _so_ much trouble when she returned home this afternoon. I had never seen where she lived with her clan before, but she had mentioned that her family was very traditional and strict, that they didn't like that women could become ninja. She hadn't disclosed much more to me than that, which hurt me somewhat, but I could understand it, since she had shuddered when I had asked her once exactly _what it was_ that the women in her clan did if they weren't allowed to become ninja. Like I said, she didn't give me a verbal answer, but the shudder she gave, coupled with a pretty horrified grimace, suggested it wasn't something that she'd have liked in the least.

Dragging myself out of my thoughts, my now sharper sense of hearing picked up on the sound of little feet thundering down the hall, and my bedroom door being slid open with a slam.

"Ane-chan~!" Hotaru chimed. _**(Side note: For those of you who don't know, "Ane" is the informal title of "older sister", just as "Ani" is the informality of "older brother")**_ I groaned in response to Hotaru clambering up onto my bed and shaking my side.

"Ane-chan! Rin-Onee-chan made us a _big_ breakfast!" Hotaru then proceeded to bury himself in my pillows with me – or, rather, my head. Damn, he was one cute little brother. He poked my cheek, at which I smiled, before I lunged, earning a squeal of happiness, soon followed by childish laughter from my baby brother. I proceeded to tickle him, and he attempted to hide his sides away from me with his hands. Key word being _tried_, I am bigger than him after all.

"A-Ane-chan! Y-Yamete kudasai!" Hotaru cried through his laughter. _**(Side note number 2: "Yamete kudasai" means "Please stop")**_ I grinned and stopped tickling him, but I picked him up and hauled myself from my tangle of bed sheets and towards the kitchen.

"A _big_ breakfast, huh? How big, Hotaru-chan?" Hotaru giggled as only a little boy can do.

"It's _huge_! There's more on the table than you and me put together!" I laughed as I walked into the kitchen, and paused, seeing that Hotaru's exaggeration hadn't been too far off. There was a breakfast feast sitting on our kitchen table for us to devour, but there was enough that we could eat everything and be contentedly full.

The table itself was filled with a variety of things: eggs, bacon, sausages, hash browns, toast, and orange juice – complete with a sippy cup for Hotaru. Rin looked up and offered a consoling smile, which I returned with my own smile of thanks.

I sat Hotaru down on the floor near the table and tuned to Rin, who came over and hugged me.

"Thank you so much, Rin. I don't know what I'd do without you, really." Rin ended the hug and smiled at me.

"Ai-chan, that's what friends are for – worrying about you and then looking after you. A good friend will bail you out of jail…" I grinned.

"But a true friend will be sitting in the cell next to you, saying 'damn! That was fun'!" I finished, and she hugged me again, before pushing me back towards the morning feast.

After breakfast, I dressed both myself and Hotaru for the day while Rin cleaned up in the kitchen and made lunch for all of us, before we were off for the day. We each had a hold of one of Hotaru's hands, and swung him between us as we walked until we dropped him off at kindergarten for the day and continued onto the academy for our orientation as Genin, our new headbands shining in the sunlight – mine wrapped around my thigh and Rin's encircling her neck.

We got to the academy surprisingly early, the only people in the room were Sasuke and Naruto. Sasuke glanced at us upon our arrival and I offered him a small smile, which he returned, before looking long and hard at Rin for a moment or two, before turning his gaze back out the window. Rin and I decided to sit up the back of the classroom so that we could talk about what had happened, namely because Rin wanted to know about it.

"So, what exactly happened before the weekend?" Rin asked, leaning her chin on her hands as she looked at me. I stared down at the desk for a while, trying to consolidate my thoughts from the useless rabble that they were at the moment.

"Well, Naruto was there too, and Iruka-sensei, so it's not like they were…you know…in front of me out of some sick form of pleasure. The reason all the Chuunin and Jonin were running around was because Mizuki-sensei told Naruto to steal a really important scroll." Rin gasped.

"No way." She whispered in shock. I nodded.

"Way. My parents died protecting Naruto and that scroll, Iruka-sensei was severely injured, also protecting Naruto. In the end, it was Naruto who brought Mizuki-sensei to his knees, and now Mizuki's in the high security prison." Rin was silent for a few moments.

"Aren't they worried that he's going to try and break out?" I shook my head in answer, and Rin sighed.

"You just watch, Ai-chan. I bet you that he's going to try and break out before your birthday next year." I nodded, looking around the classroom again, which had started to fill up while we had been talking. One of the people who had arrived while Rin and I had been deep in discussion was one Shikamaru Nara. Everybody thought that he was lazy, but Rin and I agreed that because he was so smart, nearly everything bored him, and almost nothing surprised him. He was walking towards the front of the classroom, but stopped when he noticed Naruto sitting at the end of one of the middle rows, ironically, the same row where Sasuke was sitting. He had been sitting there this whole time, head resting on his crossed arms with a goofy grin spread across his face.

"What are you doing here, Naruto? This isn't for drop-outs. You can't be here unless you graduated." Oh brother. Here we go, I had a feeling that something bad was going to happen, if not now, then soon.

"Oh yeah? Do you see this, do you see this? Open your eyes, Shikamaru. It's a regulation headband." Naruto retorted. "We're going to be training together. How do you like that?" He asked, with a smug grin on his face. Shikamaru scoffed in return.

"Let me put it this way. I look great in this head gear – like it was made for me. Believe it!" I sighed and shook my head, a rueful smile on my face. Rin happened to notice that it didn't quite reach my eyes though. She reached over and rubbed my shoulder gently.

"You okay, Ai-chan?" She asked, concernedly. I nodded, looking down at my hands in my lap.

"Yeah," I murmured, "just thinking, about a lot of things." Rin hummed, as if urging me to continue.

"Like what?" She encouraged. Before I could answer though, something brown and white, but mostly white, had jumped into my lap, landing inside my arms. I blinked slowly, looking down at our class' resident puppy, Akamaru, who was currently whining softly, complete with that sad puppy dog look on his face. I smiled sadly and reached up to stroke his head and behind his ears.

"Good dog." I cooed. He barked, jumping up so his front paws were on my upper arms and licked my cheek, before scampering back to his owner, Kiba Inuzuka, who was watching my exchange with Akamaru. When my eyes met his, he offered me a sympathetic smile, before he seemed to realise something, and he pulled out a scroll and an ink brush, writing something on it quickly, then giving it to Akamaru, who came running over to me with the scroll clasped gently between his jaws. I looked over at Rin, who had a sly grin on her face. I shook my head at her.

"Don't you even _think_ about it, Rin-chan." I threatened, and she held her hands up in surrender as her form of reply.

"Alright, I won't, now read lover boy's message." She commanded, waving her hand at me to continue before turning in the opposite direction. I shook my head with a sigh, scratching behind Akamaru's ears when he dropped the scroll into my lap. I tugged the scroll open to read the message that Kiba had scribbled inside.

_Hey, Mitsuruki-san,_

_I heard about what happened last week, and I wanted to say something, but I don't want to say sorry, or offer sympathy, because I'm sure you don't want either._

_Inuzuka Kiba._

For the first time in a while, I smiled, genuinely. I looked up and around to Kiba and nodded my agreement, to which he grinned, before I handed Akamaru back the scroll and he returned to his owner. When I turned back to Rin again, her sly grin had widened considerably. I mock-glared at her.

"Don't even think about it, Rin! We barely even know each other, and he wanted to offer his condolences, so I agreed to hang out with him this afternoon, _as __**friends**_." I honestly had to put extra stress on the 'as friends' part, or Rin would play matchmaker, especially since we were near old enough to start dating, and trust me when I say that Rin just _adores_ playing matchmaker _**(hope that's okay with you, Holly)**_, and I did not feel like playing the dating game quite yet.

My attention turned to the sounds of grunting, running feet, which was what I could only assume to be two people, or rather, girls, as the grunting sounded significantly feminine, ran down the hall towards our classroom. I nudged Rin and she leaned over for me to tell her what I'd heard. An evil grin split her face as she stood up on the row of desks we were sitting at.

"Your attention _please_, former classmates!" Everybody became relatively silent and turned to look at her.

"Thank you for joining us today. We hope you had a safe journey, and we would once again like to thank you for flying with Pig and Billboard airlines, we will be touching down shortly, have a nice day!" I couldn't help but laugh at that. Rin had just made my day, like she did on a regular basis, especially considering that I barely felt like I could smile genuinely after last Friday night. _**(No TGIF by Katy Perry pun intended folks!)**_

No sooner had I thought that than the objects of everyone's amusement appeared in the doorway, plugging it up completely. They then proceeded to fight to…_get into the classroom?_ What in the name of fudge…? After they fought their way through the door – thankfully – they both threw their arms out and exclaimed "I'm first!" in unison, before slumping and panting. The only surprising thing about that was their lack of endurance, which is something they should have improved on while at the academy, instead of chasing after Sasuke, like most of the girls in our class.

"I won again, Sakura." Ino claimed smugly.

"Give it up! I had to look back to see you! My toe was at least a tenth of an inch ahead!" Sakura retorted. Insert a Rin-and-Aissa-unified-eyeroll here.

"Have you always been this delusional?" Ino griped. By now I had worked out a vague idea as to why they were running and now arguing so intently over who had arrived first out of the two of them. I leaned over to Rin again.

"What say we go save Duckbutt the Uchiha wonder before things get out of hand?" Rin giggled, but nodded in agreement, so we quickly gathered our things and made our way down to Naruto and Sasuke's row.

"Hey, Naruto-san." I greeted smilingly. He grinned at Rin and I.

"Well, g'morning, Aissa-chan, Rin-chan." His smile dropped a little as his voice lowered. "Are you feelin' okay now?" He asked, genuine concern in his voice. I couldn't help but smile at him reassuringly.

"I'll be okay, Naruto-san. Rin-chan here spent the weekend to look after Hotaru-chan and I, so we're both fine now." Naruto nodded in understanding.

"So what brings you guys over here?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. Rin grinned.

"Well, see, we wanted to save some _girls_ the trouble of trying to forcibly get around you, so we'd like to sit between you and the Uchiha wonder." Naruto grinned at our variation of Sasuke's name and obliged, standing up in the row between the desks to let us slide into the two vacant seats – me next to Sasuke and Rin next to Naruto. Luckily we did too, because that was about when the chaos began for the morning.

"Hi Sakura, what's up?" Naruto greeted, standing up as aforementioned pinkette ran in our general direction.

"Move it!" She growled, pushing him out of the way and onto the floor, completely ignoring Rin and I.

"Uh, good morning, Sasuke-kun." Wow, bipolar much? She went from hissing and spitting at Naruto, to turning on the charm for one Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke simply turned to look at her blankly.

"Mind if I sit next to you?" She asked, before Ino returned and started an argument of mass proportions. I raised an eyebrow and leaned over to Rin.

"What are we? Karaage?"_**(Aka – Fried Chicken!)**_

Sasuke closed his eyes in annoyance. I leaned over and nudged him.

"Duckbutt, I pity you. You had to put up with _that_ every morning." He smirked, cracking one eye open to look at me.

"It gets worse than that." He muttered. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"How worse?" I dared to ask. He chuckled for a moment, before replying.

"Let's just say they've seen more than I'd care to let them see." He replied monotonously. I gasped.

"You mean they've spied on you through your windows?"

"Yes."

"And they've seen you…?"

"Yes." If possible, my eyebrow proceeded to disappear into my hairline.

"You amuse me at how well you seem to be taking that." I commented. He smirked again.

"Trust me, I didn't take it well at all." I grinned at him in response. When I turned to look around the classroom, I noticed Rin was sitting next to me, rigid and red as a tomato. I poked her, causing her to turn to look at me, wide eyed and red faced.

"Dearest Rin-chan." I began. "Did you, per chance, happen to overhear my conversation with one Duckbutt the Uchiha wonder?" Rin nodded, whimpering an "uh huh…" in response. I grinned and chuckled.

"Oh dear, Rin-chan. You know, I find it amusing that you go red when Sasuke mentions that his resident stalkers have seen him without his clothes, and yet you still manage to be extremely perverted on occasion." She mock-glared at me.

"Ai-chan, there's a difference between being perverted in thought alone and peeping on a guy in our class just because of his looks!" She whisper-yelled at me. I didn't think it was possible, but that's Rin for you. I turned back to continue to entertain Sasuke, only to come face-to-face _**(if you can call it that!)**_ with Naruto's behind. I balked, leaping into Rin's lap from the surprise. Rin blinked, and we both looked over to see that Naruto was crouched on the desk in front of Sasuke, right up in his face, and both boys were currently glaring at each other.

"Naruto! Hey, stop glaring at Sasuke!" Sakura demanded. Naruto looked back up at her before turning back to his glaring contest with Sasuke.

"This could get ugly." Rin muttered. I nodded, humming in agreement. Naruto and Sasuke's contest of male, testosterone over-loaded dominance got more intense, so much so that sparks might as well have been flying from their eyes.

I guess my feeling was right, because things got weirder when the guy sitting in front of Naruto stood up, laughing.

"Oh man, this is great! Oh, sorry, did I bump you?" Rin and I were staring in shock at the two boys. Sasuke's fan group had stopped cheering, and the rest of the class was staring in shock.


	7. Chapter 6

_**Author's Note: Well, it's rachie here. It's been a while coming now *looks at holly* but here it is! Chapter six for the world! Please note that holly and I only own Rin and Aissa, as well as any other original characters, everything else, excluding our little plot twists, are the magnificent work of the wonderfully fabulous Masashi Kishimoto, mangaka extraordinaire! Enjoy my lovelies, this is the second chapter posted to my on-going works since the new year began.**_

***Chapter 6- Separation for the Better***

The classroom was so oddly quiet that you could practically hear the cockroaches screaming between Sakura's ears. My hand had reached out for something to grab and it ended up being Ai's arm. I pointed a single finger at the two boys next to us, my eyebrows up at my hairline. "Ah, Ai?" I asked in a very quiet voice.

"Y-Yes Rin?" My dear best friend replied, her voice betraying the amount of shock running through her system. I took a deep breath in the momentary break of all conversation.

"Is this really happening?"

That single comment seemed to restart everybody's brains and suddenly the two boys broke apart, horrified. Sakura let out an ear-piercing scream that made my ears ring and my skin crawl as his entire fanclub burst into outrage. Naruto stumbled back on the desk, clutching his throat as he gagged into the next isle, while Sasuke I had to say was in quite the same position. "Ooh, I-I-I'll get you Naruto!" Sasuke coughed out as he choked on the spittle in his throat, looking paler than his usual white pallor.

I wasn't really paying attention at the present time, I was just staring at the desk in front of me where by far the strangest thing to ever happen in front of me in the history of strange things to ever happen in front of me had happened. My hand gripped Ai-chan's arm tighter as my knees buckled and I slipped back into my chair, not even noticing the furious, raging, unstoppable fangirls as they launched a smack down on Naruto's face. Ai-chan only just managed to grab me in time to stop me from falling too fast and she lowered me into the chair, her eyes just as wide. She fanned my face.

"Rinny?" She asked cautiously, "Rinny? Rin-chan, are you there?"

I nodded dumbly as she fanned my face, and I managed to turn my face to look at her, a thick blush beginning to form across my cheeks. "Ai…" I murmured.

"Yeah?"

"Could you tell me something?"

"…Yeah?"

"Did I just see onigiri-boy enter a lip lock with ramen-man?"

Ai blinked in utter shock, before she began the difficult struggle of holding back a barrel of laughter and a grin off her face. She snickered and choked on her chuckles before they all just escaped in a sudden loud rush. "O-Oh my god~! Haha, your- hahaha- your FACE!" She clutched her side as she doubled over with laughter. "You should see your face!"

I looked over at Sasuke to see him wiping his mouth in disgust, before a shiver wracked him and he gagged. I suddenly wasn't so shocked anymore, and I joined my best friend in her laughter.

"As of today, you are all ninjas." Iruka-sensei addressed the class, his hands clasped behind his back and a proud smile on his face. "To get here you've faced difficult trials and hardships. But that's nothing. What comes next will be far more difficult. Now you are only Genin, first-level ninja. All the Genin will be grouped into three or four man squads, and each squad will be led by a Jounin, an elite ninja."

By now, everyone had calmed down from the high of shock we'd all had at the sight of the most famous rivals in our class in a lip lock. Iruka-sensei had popped in just in time to save Naruto from plastic surgery; he'd had to drag each and every fangirl off of him personally. To say that the blonde was beat up was one of the many 'understatements of the year' of this week. Of course, now that we were all seated, Iruka-sensei was getting into the formalities, and to say that I was a little unnerved by the news that we were being split up was another understatement.

Small gasps of shock and understanding were practically rippling through the room. Out of the corner of my eye I looked at Ai-chan, biting my lip. I wanted to be with her, in the very least. I smirked; the two of us together was, like, the most lethal combination. The only problem was…a third person, or a fourth person. What was with teams of three or four?

"This year, we have an odd number of students, after all, we have a few more passes than we thought we would this year, so we either had the choice of having groups of three and one group of two, which would be extremely unfair, or we could have groups of three and four respectively to even it up. So, some have three, some have four." Iruka-sensei explained with a small sigh, scratching his head.

I leant over to Aissa. "By 'extra passes' do you think he means Naruto?"

"Of course he means Naruto!" She replied, "There are a few more people who I don't think any of us expected to pass though, you know?" I nodded, my attention returning to the front of the classroom.

"We want each squad to have a balance of strengths and abilities, so that's how we set them up. Just so you know, having a group of four doesn't necessarily give you an advantage over a group of three. More people doesn't always make for more power or that kind of thing. If you have a group of four, we just evened up all your abilities with an extra person, okay?" Iruka-sensei smiled, looking around the room for any questions or things before he looked down at his clipboard. "Okay then, I will now announce the squads. In squad one, we have…"

***twenty minutes later***

"AISSA!"

The word echoed through the classroom as I clung to my best friend, holding her in a death grip that'd crush anybody that wasn't used to it. Crocodile tears were rolling down my cheeks and I squeezed her tighter, earning a pained grunt. My red-headed best friend sighed, patting my head gently. "There, there, Rin-chan, it's okay." She assured with a small, pained smile. "It doesn't matter that we're not together! We'll still see each other!"

"I know!" I cried, pulling back to look her in the eyes as I sniffled. "That's my point! We won't see each other as much! You'll be out with Uchiha-san, Naruto-kun and the bubblegum-monster, and I'll be stuck with dog-breath, bug-boy and Hina-chan!"

"Hey, who're you calling dog-breath, blondie?" Kiba-kun called from atop the stairs as he stalked down then towards me, his fist raised. "You wanna say that again, Akabara?"

"Sure, puppy, you wanna go, let's go!" I cracked my knuckles as we stared each other down, grins on each of our faces as lightning flashed between us. I reached out and poked him in the cheek, and he did the same, and soon enough, we were going at it in a full scale, all-out poke war. Ai-chan only just had enough time to grab Akamaru out of Kiba's jacket before we started.

Inuzuka Kiba and I had been like this from day one. Friends from the beginning. I still remember the first day I met him, walking into the courtyard of the academy on my very first day, a wide-eyed little girl in a dress with a packed lunch and a back-pack. Kiba-kun had been one of the first to approach me. He'd looked me up and down, cocked his head and asked if I was short or if it was just him. I'd kicked him in the shin and socked him in the jaw and that was that. We'd been pretty close ever since.

"Alright, alright, break it up, you two!" Ai-chan suddenly butted in, shoving Akamaru between us. I stopped mid-poke and blinked, before reaching out to ruffle Aka-chan's fur. He barked happily and wagged his tail, making Kiba's shoulders fall in annoyance.

"Awww, Akamaru! You're meant to be on my side!" He whined, running a hand through his hair. We broke into laughter as Ai-chan passed the white haired ball of fluff back to his owner. I looked around before smiling brightly, launching myself up the stairs and grabbing my female teammate's hand. She nearly tripped out of her seat as I dragged her to her feet, pulling her after me down the stairs towards our small group of friends.

"Come on, Hina-chan~!" I said, dragging the shy girl down the stairs. "How 'bout you join the fun, huh? We need to get to know each other! We ARE going to be teammates, you know!" My voice was full of sarcasm and I lifted her hand, squeezing it tightly.

A drop of sweat slid down her cheek as she slumped her shoulders in defeat. "R-Rin-san, w-w-we've known each other since we were two; I-I don't think we need to get to know each other!"

I slid an arm around her tense shoulders, chuckling at her embarrassment. "You can never know enough about your friends~!" I gave her a light squeeze and let her go, causing her to fiddle with her fingers as Aissa slipped up the stairs to join us in conversation.

Hyuuga Hinata and I had indeed known each other since we were very young. Back in the day, her father and my father were comrades in arms, some may even say friends. As we were both of reputable clans they thought it would be good to keep the friendship between the Akabara and the Hyuuga strong. When we were little, and we didn't have anyone else to play with, we'd run around the Hyuuga compound, laughing and playing hide-and-go-seek. When we'd entered the academy, we stayed close, but after I'd met Ai-chan we had drifted apart a little.

As we'd approached the age of eleven, however, our clans had begun to intertwine their business, and while the Hyuuga met with the clan head, we'd spend time together. We had grown closer over the last few years, especially as more of our specific clan members had begun to take interest in our activities.

I suppose we could be considered very close. I kept her safe; she did the same for me. It was just a matter of knowing when to back down and when to rise up, I guess. I still remember how at New Year's a few years ago how I'd-

"-RIN!"

I jumped, pulled out of my thoughts by my best friend's voice in my ear. I shrieked and put a hand to my chest, scowling at my friend. "Kami, don't DO that!" I cried.

Ai-chan put her hands up, looking surprised. "Sorry! Don't have a heart attack!"

"Too late!" Naruto gave me a small push in the back and I shrieked again, nearly pin wheeling down the stairs. I managed to catch myself on the desk, though, so I didn't go tumbling. I turned and glared at Naruto.

"Not. Funny!"

Ai broke out in laughter, followed by Kiba-kun, then Shikamaru-san and then, of course, the whole group. I scowled at Naruto, who was holding up his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry, please don't kill me!" I grinned and ruffled his blonde hair, shaking my head. After a while more of conversation and laughter, I slipped out of the conversation, looking towards the windows. Sasuke-san sat in his usual chair, looking out the usual window with that same blank expression on his face. I stepped over to him, pushing myself up onto the desk next to him, catching his attention.

"What're you doing over here?" I asked him, smiling. He turned back to the window, and I rolled my eyes. "Come on, you could at least join in with some conversation, you might even make a friend!" I chuckled lightly, brushing some hair back behind my ear.

"…I don't need friends, Rin." He told me, still looking out the window. I watched him for a moment longer, seeing the almost harsh gaze he cast over the cherry blossom tree outside. I nodded.

"If you say so."

"HEY! Blondie!" Kiba-kun yelled across the room. I turned my head sharply, mock-glaring at the boy.

"WHAT, dog-boy?"

"Our sensei's here!"

I blinked. "Oh." I turned back to Sasuke. "Well, it looks like I gotta get going." I slid off the desk with a sigh, then smiled. "Take care of yourself, okay? And try not to kill Naruto-kun or the Sakura-san. They're okay, really."

The Uchiha 'hnn'ed and kept looking out the window. I turned back to the group and went over the hug Aissa before I grabbed Hina-chan by the hand and swept down the stairs to our new sensei. I was surprised at who it was, but I gave her a grin and a polite bow, before we left the room, Kiba-kun slightly lagging behind and Shino-san already out the door. As I left the room, I could feel a pair of dark eyes on my back.


	8. Chapter 7

_***Chapter 7 – Kakashi Hatake* **_

It had been two and a half hours since Rin had left with team eight. Sasuke was sitting at a desk in his usual chin-on-laced-fingers pose. Sakura was ogling Sasuke from her 'vantage point'. I was sitting on the window ledge, elbow propped on one of my knees as I gazed out the window to the academy grounds. Just thinking about stuff... Naruto, on the other hand, had his head out the door and was looking up and down the hallway anxiously.

"He's late." Naruto groaned. I sighed quietly, continuing to look out the window.

"Naruto! Just sit down." Sakura reprimanded. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. What Naruto ever do to deserve her constant whiny reprimanding was something I wanted to know. She always jumped down his throat, then pulled a complete one-eighty as soon as Sasuke was even vaguely mentioned. It was scary how she, along with most girls in Konoha, were absolutely obsessed with him just for his looks and his skills as a ninja.

The only good thing about all of that was that Sasuke didn't let it go to his head.

"I don't want to!" Naruto retorted, which brought me out of my thoughts, returning my attention to the conversation now taking place. "How come our teacher is the only one who's late? I'm ready to roll. Believe it!" I rolled my shoulders, tilting my head to one side, then the other, effectively cracking the joints in my neck back into alignment.

"Naruto-san, there's either a good reason out new teacher is late, or no reason at all. Despite him being our teacher, we really have no right to ask about his personal life, if he doesn't have a legitimate reason for being late." Naruto groaned in response to my attempt at reasoning with him. I shook my head bemusedly, returning my gaze to the window. "Excuses or lack thereof aside, he'll be here eventually. Just try for five minutes to be patient, Naruto-san." Naruto whined.

"But, Aissa-san, I don't want to! The other groups already met their new teachers and took off on some adventure or something, and Iruka-sensei's gone too!"

"We know, okay?" Sakura grumbled. I returned my attention to Naruto when I heard him moving something.

"Hey, what are you doing!" Sakura protested. Even Sasuke looked over to find out what was going on. I raised an eyebrow at the sight. Naruto was standing on a chair, and had slid the door to the classroom open slightly, and was carefully placing a blackboard eraser in the doorjamb, sliding the door back to hold it in place. He was snickering like a lunatic. Sakura walked over to him, and placed her hands on her hips, no doubt a harsh reprimand was at-the-ready.

"Here we go again." I mumbled, shaking my head in slight annoyance at Sakura's attitude towards Naruto-san.

"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed, displeasure evident on her face. Naruto turned to look at Sakura.

"That's what he gets for coming late!" He retorted, jumping off of the stool and returning it to where it belonged. "Surprise!"

"You're asking for trouble," Sakura lectured sternly, "you know you shouldn't do that."

"That's a surprise. He's going to do that whether it's right or wrong, so let him have his fun, and stop reprimanding him, what'd he ever do to you? He certainly hasn't done anything to me." I commented, levelling a look at Sakura that silently screamed 'I'm-not-happy-don't-provoke-me'. Before we go any further, no, I'm not in a good mood today.

"Our teacher's a Jounin, an elite ninja," Sasuke spoke up in an emotionless tone of voice, "you think he'd fall for that?"

"Yeah!" Sakura quickly chimed in, "Sasuke's right. You're so clueless Naruto!" I growled under my breath.

"Give it a rest, Haruno! Yeah, our new teacher's a Jounin, but what does it matter if he falls for a stupid prank or not! Cry me a river, build a bridge and get over it already!" I fumed, glaring openly at Sakura now, who did nothing but shoot me a look of contempt in return.

Oh, it is on like Donkey Kong…again!

My attention immediately turned to the door as somebody stuck their hand through the doorway, sliding the door open and poking a head of silver hair into the room. The eraser landed with a plonk on the man's head, before hitting the floor. Everything was silent for all of five seconds, before Naruto burst out laughing; pointing at the masked, silver haired man as he did.

"I got him! He totally fell for it!" I smiled at Naruto's antics, but couldn't help shaking my head. I figured out, thanks to my newly enhanced sense of smell, that he had been standing outside the door, listening in on us, how we interacted with each other, trying to suss out how well we'd do as a team. I worked out quite easily that he only fell for Naruto's prank because he allowed himself to fall for it.

I watched as Sakura apologised profusely to our new teacher for Naruto's behaviour while trying to hide a smile at the same time. Sasuke, as was normal for him, said nothing about the matter, preferring to stay out of it. I also stayed quiet, no longer feeling that I had to input my share into the conversation.

Our new teacher picked the eraser up off of the floor and looked at it thoughtfully. He didn't look at us once.

"How can I put this?" He asked himself, raising a hand to his chin, turning his gaze to the ceiling. "My first impression of this group," he paused, his voice never once wavering from its quiet, nonchalant tone, "you're a bunch of idiots." My face fell and my shoulders slumped in unison with the rest of my team.

So much for a good first impression.

Our teacher lead us to the roof of one of the many buildings in Konoha, where we sat on a step that lead up to a rooftop garden, while our teacher sat on the railing encompassing the roof across from us.

"All right, how about you introduce yourselves, one at a time." He sighed, again with the same nonchalant attitude.

"Introduce ourselves?" Sakura asked, like the natural blonde I suspected that she was. "Well, what are we supposed to say?"

"Things you like," The teacher replied, shrugging, "things you hate, drams for the future, hobbies…" He trailed off. "Things like that." He suggested, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Why don't you tell us stuff first? I mean, before we talk, tell us about you so we can see how it's supposed to work." Naruto asked, looking blankly at our teacher.

"Me?" He pointed to himself, and his tone actually relayed a very slight hint of surprise. "I'm Hatake Kakashi." He began. "Things I like and things I hate; I don't feel like telling you that." I hummed curiously, looking at my teacher in surprise. "My dreams for the future; never really thought about it. As for my hobbies; I have lots of hobbies."

"That was completely useless, all he really told us was his name." I mumbled, the other three nodded their agreement.

"Okay," Kakashi-sensei spoke up, "your turn. You on the right; you're first." Kakashi-sensei commanded, pointing to Naruto, who adjusted his headband, a grin on his face.

"Believe it! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, I like instant ramen in a cup, and I really like the ramen Iruka-sensei got me at the Ichiraku noodle shop, but I hate the three minutes you have to wait after you pour the water in the ramen cup. My hobby is eating different kinds of ramen and comparing them, and my future dream is; to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody; somebody important!" Kakashi-sensei seemed to think for a moment, before turning his gaze to Sakura.

"All right; next." He ordered. Sakura straightened in her sitting position, hands clasping her knees as a smile and a blush crossed her face. I rolled my eyes in anticipation of what was to come.

"I'm Haruno Sakura. What I like, uh.." She faltered in her sentence, and I grimaced. Here we go. Again. "I mean the person I like is…" She brought her fists up in front of her face and giggled, throwing a glance at Sasuke, who ignored her outright. "Uh, my hobby is, uh…" She trailed off again, and I shuddered at the possibilities of what her hobby was. She giggled again, before continuing. "My dream for the future is…" She trailed off, once again giggling, managing to add a squeal of excitement this time, and looking at Sasuke.

I groaned mentally. Dream. On.

Kakashi-sensei wasn't the only one unamused by Sakura's introduction. He looked even more bored than ever.

"And? What do you hate?" He asked pointedly. Queue the one-eighty, folks! Sakura went from a squealing, blushing, pink haired ditz, to a grumpy, whiny brat. "Naruto!" She exclaimed. Naruto, eyes wide as dinner plates, proceeded to mourn the "loss" of Sakura's affections.

"Okay, next; the girl with the red hair." I turned slightly pink in embarrassment at how our sensei addressed me.

"My name is Mitsuruki Aissa." I stated, reaching up to tug a lock of my fringe thoughtfully. "I like to train, to help advance my ninja techniques, looking after my baby brother, Hotaru-chan, and hanging out with my best friend, Akabara Rin. I strongly dislike the man who murdered my parents, and people who are more concerned about their outward appearance and the people they're crushing on, rather than honing their skills as a ninja." I looked pointedly at Sakura as I said this, and she went from gazing admiringly at Sasuke to shooting me with a simmering glare at me.

I shrugged her glare off and continued. "My dream for the future is to work my way up in the ninja ranks, and become a Jounin, or an ANBU Black Ops squad captain." Kakashi-sensei's visible eye widened at that, and he looked at me in slight shock. "My hobbies include reading, listening to music, and photography." By this time, Kakashi-sensei's expression had returned to normal and he nodded.

"Last one." He stated, indicating Sasuke. I looked over at Sasuke, who had his fingers laced together and resting against his face again, his elbows supported by his knees. He looked over his hands broodingly at our sensei, before responding in a quiet, almost emotionless tone of voice.

"My name, is Sasuke Uchiha. There are a lot of things I hate, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I am going to restore my clan, and destroy a certain someone." I raised an eyebrow at that.

Strange ideas this twelve year old boy had. Don't get me wrong, I consider him a friend, but that didn't mean he didn't have a strange viewpoint of life.

Somehow, I got the feeling that this was going to be an interesting day. Scratch that, I had the weirdest team of all time, which was going to make the rest of my life as a ninja interesting.


End file.
